It’s Tuesday and I am posting a weekend month recap. So weird! But sometimes, life takes unexpected turns andthat is okay. Many of you I’m sure have noticed that within the past week, I have done NO blog posts. Yes, NONE! Since returning from Australia I did so well with blogging Monday-Thursday every week, so it was so hard to make the decision to take a week off from blogging. I actually ended up taking more than just one week from blogging because of unexpected travel delays.
Oh goodness, where to start.
The last week of June (over a MONTH ago) was crazy. Such a good crazy, but oh.so.crazy. Actually, June in general was just crazy. 4 weddings (all of which involved traveling) and numerous shoots. My grandma and I had a trip planned to visit my aunt and cousin in North Carolina from July 2nd through the 15th. During the 4 days leading up to this trip I had a wedding, an anniversary session, an engagement session, and a styled shoot. Needless to say, I was excited (and ready) for a vacation. Before heading out, I had decided I would work really hard the first couple days in North Carolina so that I was able to take a FULL WEEK off. What!? A full week?! I really think I’m a little crazy. But I did it. I worked my tail off and it was so worth it. I didn’t notice at the time, but looking back I was starting to get burnt out. It happens. A person can only go for so long before getting tired, and I was right at that breaking point. I am so thankful for scheduling that time off. I’m thankful not only because I was able to be present with my family who I get to see once or, if I’m lucky twice, a year, but because I saved myself from getting burnt out. I will dedicate a full blog post to the highlights of this trip later, but I am SO thankful it happened, and so thankful for great timing!
Once we returned from North Carolina, I dropped my grandma off in Sioux City from flying into Omaha, and made my trip to Ames. There’s nothing like driving for over 5 hours after flying for 5 hours right?! 😉 I missed my bed so much that the next couple days I worked from it, in my pajamas. It was great! I had 2 and a half days in Ames before we headed out on our next adventure to Washington state. During those days I caught up on some work, and even had a sunrise engagement session (which will be gracing the blog tomorrow!!) I prepared for Mark and Megan’s lovely wedding in Spokane, and our camping trip adventure to get out there. I still felt exhausted, and as though I didn’t want to do much work, so I listened to my body. I did a couple short blog posts, answered emails, and spent the rest of my time watching the first two Harry Potter movies, sleeping, packing, and of course Snap- chatting 😉 Once Friday came around, we loaded up the car for our adventure out west. We drove SO much, but we got to see some pretty amazing things, so it was worth it. (Again, a full recap of this trip will also be coming to the blog soon, with beautiful photos and much more detail!) We spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday doing wedding festivities with Mark and Megan (also coming to the blog soon!) and set out for our trip home Saturday evening. Which was when things started to not be so fun.
Early Sunday morning (so early the sun hadn’t risen), as we traveled along interstate 90 through Montana’s rolling mountains, we hit a buck who was standing in the middle of the interstate. Super unfortunate. Super expensive. Super sad. (I would even go as far to say super stupid.) I cried about the deer dying, about our little Jeep dying, so.many.tears. (It’s funny how emotional I get when I have very little sleep) But God blessed us in so many ways and made a very unfortunate event good. (He always makes things good because He is good. I’m not sure why it’s so easy to let your circumstances make you forget that)
None of us were hurt. We hit that deer pretty hard (we were on the interstate after all) and besides that poor deer, the only damages done were to things that can be fixed or replaced. Blessing number one. As we got out of the car to assess the damages, I got out and went into autopilot mode, calmly calling American Family, going through prompts and talking to several people about getting a tow truck out and a claim made. Thankfully we have full coverage insurance with roadside assistance and we’ve already met our deductible this year (because of a stupid mistake on my part). So towing, repairs, etc. will cost us nothing out of pocket. Blessing number two. We happened to hit the deer on the interstate going though Bozeman, MT, a city of 37,000 people. We could have very easily hit this deer anywhere, in any state, and it happened to be .75 miles before an exit into the heart of Bozeman. Blessing number three. As the couple driving the tow truck came I began to cry. The guy told me everything was going to be alright, and the lady gave me a hug. Two people we had never met, that had to get up at 5:30 on a Sunday to come tow our poor little Jeep, showed us nothing but kindness. They dropped off the Jeep and then took us to the airport to see about rental cars. Blessing number four. At some point during all of this, Michael found out his cousin actually lives in Bozeman, MT. Seriously. Blessing number five. We went to the Enterprise desk because although we unfortunately did not have rental reimbursement, our American Family agent said we could get a discount still. Turns out with Enterprise you have to make a reservation in advance in order to do a one way rental, so we rented a vehicle for the day, while we waited to hear from Michael’s cousin, and set out for breakfast.
I posted on Facebook explaining the situation, and was overwhelmed by the response from our family and friends. Both of my grandmas immediately were ready to drop everything to come out to get us. I got numerous texts from people who had connections to this city we happened to hit a deer in, who were willing to help us out, and even find us people to stay with. Blessing number six. As I picked at my breakfast, we weighed our options on how we could get home, and whether or not that would involve towing the Jeep or just leaving it. Fun fact Not-so-fun-fact, it costs around $600.00 to get a car with Enterprise and drop it at a different location. Six.hundred.dollars. Oh, and it costs almost $1,000.00 to rent a Uhaul and dolly for towing. One.thousand.dollars. During our breakfast Michael’s cousin let us know we were welcome in her home, so we set out for showers and rest. Blessing number seven. As we continued researching options on what to do, my dad let me know about a code he had for Avis rentals, and asked me to check if we would be able to do a same day rental through Avis and a one way drop. Turns out we could. Blessing number eight. His code saved us 200.00 off of the original Avis price, and 500.00 off of what we would have paid for Enterprise. Blessing number nine. We drove through the night. (Well Tyler did) and saw over twenty deer on a 30 mile highway stretch right before entering South Dakota. Twenty deer on the highway. Tyler did an amazing job and I am so proud of him. I drove the rest of the way home once it got light out, and we arrived safely in Ames today around 1:00. Blessing number ten.
We have no idea what is going to happen with the Jeep. There are so many variables right now, so we are patiently waiting to hear from our insurance adjuster. This means I am in Ames with no vehicle until further notice. But you know what? We were blessed in TEN (actually, probably more) different ways through this situation, so I am okay with not knowing.
